Cheryl Crazy Bull Appears at D.C.Generation Indigenous Meeting; Michelle Obama Offers Support

April 29, 2015

President Cheryl Crazy Bull appeared in Washington, D.C. on April 8 at the White House with other Native leaders to offer her thoughts about the challenges facing Native youth today, and ways to overcome those challenges. First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the convening; click here for her full remarks.

The meeting was part of the Generation Indigenous initiative launched by President Obama and First Lady Obama after their visit in 2014 to the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota, where he was dismayed by conditions that young Native people face in their daily lives.

The initiative, know as Gen I, is being overseen by the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute. The program seeks to build a National Native Youth Network to provide a sustainable platform to reach out, engage, and provide educational and economic opportunities for Native youth. The network provides a framework for connecting with youth leaders, resources that focus attainment of higher education, entrepreneurship training, mentoring, and a platform to integrate Native youth voices into the national dialogue.

The American Indian College Fund has endorsed the Gen I program and launched the Gen I Challenge with tribal college students at the American Indian Higher Education Consortium annual student meeting in Albuqurque in March 2015. For ongoing information about the program or to get involved, please join us on Facebook in our group Native scholars.